Professional Documents
Culture Documents
THEME
FIVE
Women and men have travelled in search of work, to escape from natural disasters, as traders, merchants, soldiers, priests, pilgrims, or driven by a sense of adventure. Those who visit or come to stay in a new land invariably encounter a world that is different: in terms of the landscape or physical environment as well as customs, languages, beliefs and practices of people. Many of them try to adapt to these differences; others, somewhat exceptional, note them carefully in Fig. 5.1a accounts, generally recording what they find Paan leaves unusual or remarkable. Unfortunately, we have practically no accounts of travel left by women, though we know that they travelled. The accounts that survive are often varied in terms of their subject matter. Some deal with affairs of the court, while others are mainly focused on religious issues, or architectural features and monuments. For example, one of the most important descriptions of the city of Vijayanagara (Chapter 7) in the fifteenth century comes from Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi, a diplomat who came visiting from Herat. In a few cases, travellers did not go to distant lands. For example, in the Mughal Empire (Chapters 8 and 9), administrators sometimes travelled within the empire and recorded their observations. Some of them were interested in looking at popular customs and the folklore and traditions of their own land. In this chapter we shall see how our knowledge of the past can be enriched through a consideration of descriptions of social life provided by travellers who visited the subcontinent, focusing on the accounts of three Fig. 5.1b men: Al-Biruni who came from Uzbekistan (eleventh A coconut The coconut and the paan century), Ibn Battuta who came from Morocco, in were things that struck many northwestern Africa (fourteenth century) and the travellers as unusual. Frenchman Franois Bernier (seventeenth century).
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Source 1
Al-Birunis objectives
Al-Biruni described his work as:
a help to those who want to discuss religious questions with them (the Hindus), and as a repertory of information to those who want to associate with them.
Read the excerpt from Al-Biruni (Source 5) and discuss whether his work met these objectives.
Al-Birunis expertise in several languages allowed him to compare languages and translate texts. He translated several Sanskrit works, including Patanjalis work on grammar, into Arabic. For his Brahmana friends, he translated the works of Euclid (a Greek mathematician) into Sanskrit.
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1.1 From Khwarizm to the Punjab Al-Biruni was born in 973, in Khwarizm in presentday Uzbekistan. Khwarizm was an important centre of learning, and Al-Biruni received the best education available at the time. He was well versed in several languages: Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew and Sanskrit. Although he did not know Greek, he was familiar with the works of Plato and other Greek philosophers, having read them in Arabic translations. In 1017, when Sultan Mahmud invaded Khwarizm, he took several scholars and poets back to his capital, Ghazni; Al-Biruni was one of them. He arrived in Ghazni as a hostage, but gradually developed a liking for the city, where he spent the rest of his life until his death at the age of 70. It was in Ghazni that Al-Biruni developed an interest in India. This was not unusual. Sanskrit works on astronomy, mathematics and medicine had been translated into Arabic from the eighth century onwards. When the Punjab became a part of the Ghaznavid empire, contacts with the local population helped create an environment of mutual trust and understanding. Al-Biruni spent years in the company of Brahmana priests and scholars, learning Sanskrit, and studying religious and philosophical texts. While his itinerary is not clear, it is likely that he travelled widely in the Punjab and parts of northern India. Travel literature was already an accepted part of Arabic literature by the time he wrote. This literature dealt with lands as far apart as the Sahara desert in the west to the River Volga in the north. So, while
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Metrology is the science of measurement.
Hindu
The term Hindu was derived from an Old Persian word, used c. sixth-fifth centuries BCE , to refer to the region east of the river Sindhu (Indus). The Arabs continued the Persian usage and called this region al-Hind and its people Hindi. L ater the Turks referred to the people east of the Indus as Hindu, their land as Hindustan, and their language as Hindavi. None of these expressions indicated the religious identity of the people. It was much later that the term developed religious connotations.
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Discuss...
If Al-Biruni lived in the twenty-first century, which are the areas of the world where he could have been easily understood, if he still knew the same languages?
Fig. 5.2 An illustration from a thirteenthcentury Arabic manuscript showing the Athenian statesman and poet Solon, who lived in the sixth century BCE, addressing his students Notice the clothes they are shown in.
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Source 2
Ibn Battuta returned home in 1354, about 30 years after he had set out.
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Zaytun (now known as Quanzhou). He travelled extensively in China, going as far as Beijing, but did not stay for long, deciding to return home in 1347. His account is often compared with that of Marco Polo, who visited China (and also India) from his home base in Venice in the late thirteenth century. Ibn Battuta meticulously recorded his observations about new cultures, peoples, beliefs, values, etc. We need to bear in mind that this globe-trotter was travelling in the fourteenth century, when it was much more arduous and hazardous to travel than it is today. According to Ibn Battuta, it took forty days to travel from Multan to Delhi and about fifty days from Sind to Delhi. The distance from Daulatabad to Delhi was covered in forty days, while that from Gwalior to Delhi took ten days.
Robbers were not the only hazard on long journeys: the traveller could feel homesick, or fall ill. Here is an excerpt from the Rihla: I was attacked by the fever, and I actually tied myself on the saddle with a turbancloth in case I should fall off by reason of my weakness ... So at last we reached the town of Tunis, and the townsfolk came out to welcome the shaikh ... and ... the son of the qazi ... On all sides they came forward with greetings and questions to one another, but not a soul said a word of greeting to me, since there was none of them I knew. I felt so sad at heart on account of my loneliness that I could not restrain the tears that started to my eyes, and wept bitterly. But one of the pilgrims, realising the cause of my distress, came up to me with a greeting ...
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The lonely traveller
Fig. 5.4 A boat carrying passengers, a terracotta sculpture from a temple in Bengal (c. seventeenth-eighteenth centuries)
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Map 1 Places visited by Ibn Battuta in Afghanistan, Sind and Punjab Many of the place-names have been spelt as Ibn Battuta would have known them.
Tirmidh Andkhoy Balkh Qunduz
Qandahar
Use the scale on the map to calculate the distance in miles between Multan and Delhi.
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Ajudahan Abuhar Multan Uja Hansi
Ind us
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Dehli
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200
300
ARABIAN SEA
Lahari
Travelling was also more insecure: Ibn Battuta was attacked by bands of robbers several times. In fact he preferred travelling in a caravan along with companions, but this did not deter highway robbers. While travelling from Multan to Delhi, for instance, his caravan was attacked and many of his fellow travellers lost their lives; those travellers who survived, including Ibn Battuta, were severely wounded. 2.2 The enjoyment of curiosities As we have seen, Ibn Battuta was an inveterate traveller who spent several years travelling through north Africa, West Asia and parts of Central Asia (he may even have visited Russia), the Indian subcontinent and China, before returning to his native land, Morocco. When he returned, the local ruler issued instructions that his stories be recorded.
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In the centuries between 1400 and 1800 visitors to India wrote a number of travelogues in Persian. At the same time, Indian visitors to Central Asia, Iran and the Ottoman empire also sometimes wrote about their experiences. These writers followed in the footsteps of Al-Biruni and Ibn Battuta, and had sometimes read these earlier authors. Among the best known of these writers were Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi, who visited south India in the 1440s, Mahmud Wali Balkhi, who travelled very widely in the 1620s, and Shaikh Ali Hazin, who came to north India in the 1740s. Some of these authors were fascinated by India, and one of them Mahmud Balkhi even became a sort of sanyasi for a time. Others such as Hazin were disappointed and even disgusted with India, where they expected to receive a red carpet treatment. Most of them saw India as a land of wonders.
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Discuss...
Compare the objectives of Al-Biruni and Ibn Battuta in writing their accounts.
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3. Franois Bernier
A Doctor with a Difference
Once the Portuguese arrived in India in about 1500, a number of them wrote detailed accounts regarding Indian social customs and religious practices. A few of them, such as the Jesuit Roberto Nobili, even translated Indian texts into European languages. Among the best known of the Portuguese writers is Duarte Barbosa, who wrote a detailed account of trade and society in south India. Later, after 1600, we find growing numbers of Dutch, English and French travellers coming to India. One of the most famous was the French jeweller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who travelled to India at least six times. He was particularly fascinated with the trading conditions in India, and compared India to Iran and the Ottoman empire. Some of these travellers, like the Italian doctor Manucci, never returned to Europe, and settled down in India. Franois Bernier, a Frenchman, was a doctor, political philosopher and historian. Like many others, he came to the Mughal Empire in search of opportunities. He was in India for twelve years, from 1656 to 1668, and was closely associated with the Mughal court, as a physician to Prince Dara Shukoh, the eldest son of Emperor Shah Jahan, and later as an intellectual and scientist, with Danishmand Khan, an Armenian noble at the Mughal court.
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3.1 Comparing East and West Bernier travelled to several parts of the country, and wrote accounts of what he saw, frequently comparing what he saw in India with the situation in Europe. He dedicated his major writing to Louis XIV, the king of France, and many of his other works were written in the form of letters to influential officials and ministers. In virtually every instance Bernier described what he saw in India as a bleak situation in comparison to developments in Europe. As we will see, this assessment was not always accurate. However, when his works were published, Berniers writings became extremely popular.
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What are the things from Berniers list that you would take on a journey today?
Berniers works were published in France in 1670-71 and translated into English, Dutch, German and Italian within the next five years. Between 1670 and 1725 his account was reprinted eight times in French, and by 1684 it had been reprinted three times in English. This was in marked contrast to the accounts in Arabic and Persian, which circulated as manuscripts and were generally not published before 1800.
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The writings of European travellers helped produce an image of India for Europeans through the printing and circulation of their books. Later, after 1750, when Indians like Shaikh Itisamuddin and Mirza Abu Talib visited Europe and confronted this image that Europeans had of their society, they tried to influence it by producing their own version of matters.
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Discuss...
There is a very rich travel literature in Indian languages. Find out about travel writers in the language you use at home. Read one such account and describe the areas visited by the traveller, what s/he saw, and why s/he wrote the account.
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Travellers did not always believe what they were told. When faced with the story of a wooden idol that supposedly lasted for 216,432 years, Al-Biruni asks: How, then, could wood have lasted such a length of time, and particularly in a place where the air and the soil are rather wet? God knows best!
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4.2 Al-Birunis description of the caste system Al-Biruni tried to explain the caste system by looking for parallels in other societies. He noted that in ancient Persia, four social categories were recognised: those of knights and princes; monks, fire-priests and lawyers; physicians, astronomers and other scientists; and finally, peasants and artisans. In other words, he attempted to suggest that social divisions were not unique to India. At the same time he pointed out that within Islam all men were considered equal, differing only in their observance of piety. In spite of his acceptance of the Brahmanical description of the caste system, Al-Biruni disapproved of the notion of pollution. He remarked that everything which falls into a state of impurity strives and succeeds in regaining its original condition of purity. The sun cleanses the air, and the salt in the sea prevents the water from becoming polluted. If it
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Source 5
The next caste are the Kshatriya, who were created, as they say, from the shoulders and hands of Brahman. Their degree is not much below that of the Brahmana. After them follow the Vaishya, who were created from the thigh of Brahman. The Shudra, who were created from his feet . . .
Between the latter two classes there is no very great distance. Much, however, as these classes differ from each other, they live together in the same towns and villages, mixed together in the same houses and lodgings.
As we have seen, Al-Birunis description of the caste system was deeply influenced by his study of normative Sanskrit texts which laid down the rules governing the system from the point of view of the Brahmanas. However, in real life the system was not quite as rigid. For instance, the categories defined as antyaja (literally, born outside the system) were often expected to provide inexpensive labour to both peasants and zamindars (see also Chapter 8). In other words, while they were often subjected to social oppression, they were included within economic networks.
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Compare what Al-Biruni wrote with Source 6, Chapter 3. Do you notice any similarities and differences? Do you think Al-Biruni depended only on Sanskrit texts for his information and understanding of Indian society?
Discuss...
How important is knowledge of the language of the area for a traveller from a different region?
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Source 6
What are the comparisons that Ibn Battuta makes to give his readers an idea about what coconuts looked like? Do you think these are appropriate? How does he convey a sense that this fruit is unusual? How accurate is his description?
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Source 7
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5.1 The coconut and the paan Some of the best examples of Ibn Battutas strategies of representation are evident in the ways in which he described the coconut and the paan, two kinds of plant produce that were completely unfamiliar to his audience.
The paan
The betel is a tree which is cultivated in the same manner as the grape-vine; The betel has no fruit and is grown only for the sake of its leaves The manner of its use is that before eating it one takes areca nut; this is like a nutmeg but is broken up until it is reduced to small pellets, and one places these in his mouth and chews them. Then he takes the leaves of betel, puts a little chalk on them, and masticates them along with the betel.
Why do you think this attracted Ibn Battutas attention? Is there anything you would like to add to this description?
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Here is an excerpt from Ibn Battutas account of Delhi, often spelt as Dehli in texts of the period:
The city of Dehli covers a wide area and has a large population ... The rampart round the city is without parallel. The breadth of its wall is eleven cubits; and inside it are houses for the night sentry and gatekeepers. Inside the ramparts, there are store-houses for storing edibles, magazines, ammunition, ballistas and siege machines. The grains that are stored (in these ramparts) can last for a long time, without rotting ... In the interior of the rampart, horsemen as well as infantrymen move from one end of the city to another. The rampart is pierced through by windows which open on the side of the city, and it is through these windows that light enters inside. The lower part of the rampart is built of stone; the upper part of bricks. It has many towers close to one another. There are twenty eight gates of this city which are called darwaza, and of these, the Budaun darwaza is the greatest; inside the Mandwi darwaza there is a grain market; adjacent to the Gul darwaza there is an orchard ... It (the city of Dehli) has a fine cemetery in which graves have domes over them, and those that do not have a dome, have an arch, for sure. In the cemetery they sow flowers such as tuberose, jasmine, wild rose, etc.; and flowers blossom there in all seasons.
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Dehli
What were the architectural features that Ibn Battuta noted? Compare this description with the illustrations of the city shown in Figs. 5.8 and 5.9.
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Fig. 5.8 (top) An arch in Tughlakabad, Delhi Fig. 5.9 (left) Part of the fortification wall of the settlement
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Fig. 5.10 Ikat weaving patterns such as this were adopted and modified at several coastal production centres in the subcontinent and in Southeast Asia.
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Source 9
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Why do you think Ibn Battuta highlighted these activities in his description?
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A strange nation?
The travelogue of Abdur Razzaq written in the 1440s is an interesting mixture of emotions and perceptions. On the one hand, he did not appreciate what he saw in the port of Calicut (present-day Kozhikode) in Kerala, which was populated by a people the likes of whom I had never imagined, describing them as a strange nation. Later in his visit to India, he arrived in Mangalore, and crossed the Western Ghats. Here he saw a temple that filled him with admiration: Within three leagues (about nine miles of Mangalore, I saw an idol-house the likes of which is not to be found in all the world. It was a square, approximately ten yards a side, five yards in height, all covered with cast bronze, with four porticos. In the entrance portico was a statue in the likeness of a human being, full stature, made of gold. It had two red rubies for eyes, so cunningly made that you would say it could see. What craft and artisanship!
In India the postal system is of two kinds. The horsepost, called uluq, is run by royal horses stationed at a distance of every four miles. The foot-post has three stations per mile; it is called dawa, that is one-third of a mile ... Now, at every third of a mile there is a wellpopulated village, outside which are three pavilions in which sit men with girded loins ready to start. Each of them carries a rod, two cubits in length, with copper bells at the top. When the courier starts from the city he holds the letter in one hand and the rod with its bells on the other; and he runs as fast as he can. When the men in the pavilion hear the ringing of the bell they get ready. As soon as the courier reaches them, one of them takes the letter from his hand and runs at top speed shaking the rod all the while until he reaches the next dawa. And the same process continues till the letter reaches its destination. This foot-post is quicker than the horse-post; and often it is used to transport the fruits of Khurasan which are much desired in India.
Do you think the foot-post system could have operated throughout the subcontinent?
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Discuss...
How did Ibn Battuta handle the problem of describing things or situations to people who had not seen or experienced them?
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Widespread poverty
Pelsaert, a Dutch traveller, visited the subcontinent during the early decades of the seventeenth century. Like Bernier, he was shocked to see the widespread poverty, poverty so great and miserable that the life of the people can be depicted or accurately described only as the home of stark want and the dwelling place of bitter woe. Holding the state responsible, he says: So much is wrung from the peasants that even dry bread is scarcely left to fill their stomachs.
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6.1 The question of landownership According to Bernier, one of the fundamental differences between Mughal India and Europe was the lack of private property in land in the former. He was a firm believer in the virtues of private property, and saw crown ownership of land as being harmful for both the state and its people. He thought that in the Mughal Empire the emperor owned all the land and distributed it among his nobles, and that this had disastrous consequences for the economy and society. This perception was not unique to Bernier, but is found in most travellers accounts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Owing to crown ownership of land, argued Bernier, landholders could not pass on their land to their children. So they were averse to any long-term investment in the sustenance and expansion of production. The absence of private property in land had, therefore, prevented the emergence of the class of improving landlords (as in Western Europe) with
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In this instance, Bernier was participating in contemporary debates in Europe concerning the nature of state and society, and intended that his description of Mughal India would serve as a warning to those who did not recognise the merits of private property. What, according to Bernier, were the problems faced by peasants in the subcontinent? Do you think his description would have served to strengthen his case?
As an extension of this, Bernier described Indian society as consisting of undifferentiated masses of impoverished people, subjugated by a small minority of a very rich and powerful ruling class. Between the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich, there was no social group or class worth the name. Bernier confidently asserted: There is no middle state in India.
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Fig. 5.11 Drawings such as this nineteenth-century example often reinforced the notion of an unchanging rural society.
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Source 12
How does Bernier depict a scenario of doom? Once you have read Chapters 8 and 9, return to this description and analyse it again.
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Source 13
Read this excerpt from Berniers description of both agriculture and craft production:
It is important to observe, that of this vast tract of country, a large portion is extremely fertile; the large kingdom of Bengale (Bengal), for instance, surpassing Egypt itself, not only in the production of rice, corn, and other necessaries of life, but of innumerable articles of commerce which are not cultivated in Egypt; such as silks, cotton, and indigo. There are also many parts of the Indies, where the population is sufficiently abundant, and the land pretty well tilled; and where the artisan, although naturally indolent, is yet compelled by necessity or otherwise to employ himself in manufacturing carpets, brocades, embroideries, gold and silver cloths, and the various sorts of silk and cotton goods, which are used in the country or exported abroad. It should not escape notice that gold and silver, after circulating in every other quarter of the globe, come at length to be swallowed up, lost in some measure, in Hindustan.
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Fig. 5.12 A gold spoon studded with emeralds and rubies, an example of the dexterity of Mughal artisans
In what ways is the description in this excerpt different from that in Source 11?
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Source 14
The artisans come every morning to their karkhanas where they remain employed the whole day; and in the evening return to their homes. In this quiet regular manner, their time glides away; no one aspiring for any improvement in the condition of life wherein he happens to be born.
How does Bernier convey a sense that although there was a great deal of activity, there was little progress?
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Discuss...
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Why do you think scholars like Bernier chose to compare India with Europe?
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Source 15
7. Women
Slaves, Sati and Labourers
Travellers who left written accounts were generally men who were interested in and sometimes intrigued by the condition of women in the subcontinent. Sometimes they took social inequities for granted as a natural state of affairs. For instance, slaves were openly sold in markets, like any other commodity, and were regularly exchanged as gifts. When Ibn Battuta reached Sind he purchased horses, camels and slaves as gifts for Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq. When he reached Multan, he presented the governor with, a slave and horse together with raisins and almonds. Muhammad bin Tughlaq, informs Ibn Battuta, was so happy with the sermon of a preacher named Nasiruddin that he gave him a hundred thousand tankas (coins) and two hundred slaves. It appears from Ibn Battutas account that there was considerable differentiation among slaves. Some female slaves in the service of the Sultan were experts in music and dance, and Ibn Battuta enjoyed their performance at the wedding of the Sultans sister. Female slaves were also employed by the Sultan to keep a watch on his nobles. Slaves were generally used for domestic labour, and Ibn Battuta found their services particularly indispensable for carrying women and men on palanquins or dola. The price of slaves, particularly female slaves required for domestic labour, was very low, and most families who could afford to do so kept at least one or two of them. Contemporary European travellers and writers often highlighted the treatment of women as a crucial marker of difference between Western and Eastern societies. Not surprisingly, Bernier chose the practice of sati for detailed description. He noted that while some women seemed to embrace death cheerfully, others were forced to die.
Slave women
Ibn Battuta informs us:
It is the habit of the emperor ... to keep with every noble, great or small, one of his slaves who spies on the nobles. He also appoints female scavengers who enter the houses unannounced; and to them the slave girls communicate all the information they possess.
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Source 16
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Discuss...
Why do you think the lives of ordinary women workers did not attract the attention of travellers such as Ibn Battuta and Bernier?
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You may have noticed that travellers accounts provide us with a tantalising glimpse of the lives of men and women during these centuries. However, their observations were often shaped by the contexts from which they came. At the same time, there were many aspects of social life that these travellers did not notice. Also relatively unknown are the experiences and observations of men (and possibly women) from the subcontinent who crossed seas and mountains and ventured into lands beyond the subcontinent. What did they see and hear? How were their relations with peoples of distant lands shaped? What were the languages they used? These and other questions will hopefully be systematically addressed by historians in the years to come.
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Timeline
Some Travellers who Left Accounts
Tenth- eleventh centuries 973 -1048 Muhammad ibn Ahmad Abu Raihan al-Biruni (from Uzbekistan)
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Marco Polo (from Italy) Ibn Battuta (from Morocco) Afanasii Nikitich Nikitin (fifteenth century, from Russia) Duarte Barbosa, d.1521 (from Portugal) Seydi Ali Reis (from Turkey) Antonio Monserrate (from Spain) Mahmud Wali Balkhi (from Balkh) Peter Mundy (from England) Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (from France) Franois Bernier (from France)
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Note: Unless otherwise indicated, the dates mentioned are those of the lifespan of the traveller.
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9. Read this excerpt from Bernier:
5. What were the elements of the practice of sati that drew the attention of Bernier?
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6. Discuss Al-Birunis understanding of the caste system. 7. Do you think Ibn Battutas account is useful in arriving at an understanding of life in contemporary urban centres? Give reasons for your answer. 8. Discuss the extent to which Berniers account enables historians to reconstruct contemporary rural society.
Numerous are the instances of handsome pieces of workmanship made by persons destitute of tools, and who can scarcely be said to have received instruction from a master. Sometimes they imitate so perfectly articles of European manufacture that the difference between the original and copy can hardly be discerned. Among other things, the Indians make excellent muskets, and fowlingpieces, and such beautiful gold ornaments that it may be doubted if the exquisite workmanship of those articles can be exceeded by any European goldsmith. I have often admired the beauty, softness, and delicacy of their paintings.
List the crafts mentioned in the passage. Compare these with the descriptions of artisanal activity in the chapter.
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Map work
10. On an outline map of the world mark the countries visited by Ibn Battuta. What are the seas that he may have crossed?
If you would like to know more, read: Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam. 2006. Indo-Persian Travels in the Age of Discoveries, 1400-1800. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Catherine Asher and Cynthia Talbot. 2006. India Before Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Franois Bernier. nd. Travels in the Mogul Empire AD 1656-1668. Low Price Publications, New Delhi. H.A.R. Gibb (ed.). 1993. The Travels of Ibn Battuta. Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi. Mushirul Hasan (ed.). 2005. Westward Bound: Travels of Mirza Abu Talib. Oxford University Press, New Delhi. H.K. Kaul (ed.). 1997. Travellers India an Anthology. Oxford University Press, New Delhi. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier. 1993. Travels in India. Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi.
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